Enbridge Dirty Tar Sands Pipeline to Exceed the Keystone XL

For those of you following tar sands pipeline developments and the growing opposition to the K-XL, heightened opposition is needed as tar sands pipelines proliferate. The planned Enbridge pipeline, also from Canada to Texas, would be even larger than the K-XL. Enbridge would connect four pipelines, exceed the size of the K-XL, and also carry approximately 850,000 barrels of dirty tar sands oil per day.

As the Sierra Club reports: “Enbridge’s tar sands expansion plan doesn’t stop there. The company plans to dramatically increase capacity on the infamous Line 6B that spilled into the KalamazooRiver, and is quietly backing Exxon’s plans to reverse the flow on a line that would deliver tar sands through Vermont, New Hampshire, and out for export through the ports of Maine. All told, Enbridge plans to expand their capacity to import tar sands by more than two million barrels per day.”

As discussed in our July 23 blog, the National Transportation and Safety Board found gross negligence that lead to the disastrous tar sands oil spill in the KalamazooRiver in 2010, releasing more than a million gallons of tar sands oil. So now the corporation responsible for our country’s largest onshore spill, which still requires clean-up years later, wants to further expand its dirty tar sands operations.

A report by the Polaris Institute in Ottawa, Out on the Mainline: Mapping Enbridge’s Web of Pipeline, states: “According to Enbridge’s own data, between 1999 and 2010, across all of the company’s operations there were 804 spills that released 161,475 barrels (approximately 18.95 million litres, or 5 million gallons) of hydrocarbons into the environment.”

Green Americans need to speak out:

Especially if you live in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, or Texas – tell your elected officials you strongly oppose tar sands pipelines in your state. And given the national consequencesand costs of the Enbridge pipeline on human health, the environment, and the setback it represents to the development of our nation’s clean energy economy – all Americans should oppose the development of the Enbridge tar sands pipeline – there is still time!